Twenty-four hours after a group of 38 parties announced the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) to wrest power from President Muhammadu Buhari, another group of 20 political parties yesterday joined forces with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in an alliance to form the Coalition of Progressives Political Parties (CPPP).
Also yesterday, Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) Chairman and former Kaduna State Governor Balarabe Musa described the coalition against Buhari โas an act of opportunism.โ
A presidential aspirant of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) also lashed out at the PDP-led coalition for its โlack of any real agenda to improve the lives of Nigeria.โ
There are 68 registered political parties and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is considering the application for registration of about 138 others.
The political parties in pro-Buhariโs CPPP which met in Abuja yesterday, are: All Progressives Congress (APC), Accord Party, Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), United Progressive Party (UPP), Advanced Peopleโs Democratic Alliance (APDA), Hope Democratic Party (HDP), Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) and Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN).
Others are: Freedom Justice Party (FJP), Fresh Party (FP), New Nigeriaโs Peoples Party (NNPP), Nigeriaโs Peoples Congress (NPC), Nigeria Peoples Movement (NPM), Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), National Action Congress (NAC) and NDLP.
The chairman of the coalition, who is also the National chairman of PDM, Alhaji Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim, told reporters after hours of meeting at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja that the coalition was made up of like-minded political parties who believe in Nigeriaโs unity and stability.
He noted that the coalition, which was formed in 2014 ahead of the 2015 presidential election aligned with the candidature of President Buhari, then the APC candidate.
Ibrahim said the coalition was merely resurrected to counter the orchestrated PDP coalition against the APC-led government.
Berating the PDP coalition, he said the parties were driven by selfishness and hunger to capture power in 2019.
He explained that the parties that formed the coalition with the PDP lacked the agenda to drive a new Nigeria.
The PDM chairman alleged that most of the parties in the PDP coalition were fraudulently included to sign the MoU to deceive Nigerians.
He noted that while the Accord Party chairman and his party, the PDM, among others, abstained from the PDP meeting, their partiesโ names were listed without their consent. This, he said, raised doubts about the credibility of the coalition.
He said: โYesterday (Monday) we woke up to a new development where PDP outside power has now managed to create another coalition. As facts continue to emerge, they listed 36 political parties. Our analysis of that coalition reveals that a number of political parties were included in that coalition fraudulently.
โPart of the 42 political parties they listed is Accord party and the chairman of the party is here with us. If you are creating a coalition, you need to be honest about it as to who and who are members of the coalition.
โAs of today, the membership of that coalition is in doubt. Two members also listed at that coalition are here. We are not part of that coalition because we represent a political type of politics which is in total contradiction of what they are doing.
โWe do not believe that our country should be governed by people whose only objective is to capture power. For what purpose is that coalition built? Is it for the purpose of taking Nigeria back to 1999 and 2015 or is it for the purpose of building a new Nigeria?
โThat purpose has not been stated, even their in their memorandum. The only thing in their MoU is to agree to capture power in 2019. Their programme has not been made known to the Nigerian public . We will not be part of a coalition that does not have a programme for Nigeria.โ
On the objective of the CPPP coalition, Ibrahim said it was to mobilise Nigerians to play a greater role in political activities and ensure that they are given the right to elect their leaders in a free. fair and credible electoral process.
He said the agenda included to monitor and exert pressure on INEC to uphold the sanctity of elections and to help identify security threat, among others.
The secretary of the Coalition and National Chairman of the Advanced Peopleโs Democratic Alliance (APDA), Shittu Muhammed Kabiru, noted that the coalition was to advance the course of democracy and to stabilise the economy which was mismanaged by past PDP- led governments.
Shittu said the coalition would bring Nigeria out of economic impoverishment.
โWe want Nigerians to know that our coalition is for a new Nigeria and to advance the cause of Nigeria and democracy and also to change the country from impoverishment to economic prosperity.
โWe want Nigeria to survive. We will do everything to defend the economy of this country; we are concerned about the unity and stability of Nigeria,โ Shittu said.
